In a column that'll be online this afternoon, I take vigorous issue with the notion--advanced by George Snell and others--that the Globe's (alleged) liberal bias is one of the reasons it's failing.

But Snell's point about the excessively boutique-y nature of much Globe content strikes me as worth pondering (even though I think the paper's problems are, for the most part, those of the newspaper industry as a whole).

Whatever transpires with the Times Co.'s concede-or-close ultimatum to the Globe and its unions, the relationship between New York and Boston looks irreparable right now.

From the Times Co.'s point of view, the paper they spent $1.1 billion on is now a money-loser on pace to hemmorhage $85 million in 2008 and 2009, at a moment when the Times itself is in jeopardy and needs to be protected.

Update: This post was originally titled "The Herald's excellent, incendiary Times Co. scoop." Alas,"scoop" was a poor term to use: a reader notes that Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson's salary was making the web rounds last week, and that Globe publisher Steve Ainsley's salary was cited by The Boston Channel yesterday

Over at CommonWealth Unbound--which, I confess, I still don't read as often as I should--Michael Jonas revisits the way Sam Yoon's recent budget hearing in Dorchester playedout in the press, and argues that the coverage portends poorly for this year's mayoral race. Unfortunately, Jonas makes a pretty good case. [Via Universal Hub]

--The Herald reports that the Globe is raising the price of its print edition, to $1.50 on weekdays/Saturdays (outside of eastern MA) and to $3.50 ($4 outside of Eastern MA) on Sundays. The people who made this decision have financial skills I can't claim. But how will this not exacerbate the migration of (formerly) paying print readers to the web?

A reliable source tells DQM that the New York Times Co. has threatened to close the Boston Globe if the paper's unions don't agree to $20 million in concessions in the next 30 days. Possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the NYT Co., and the elimination of the lifetime job guarantees some union members enjoy.